Saturday 20^th February 2010

I have given this project a bit of a wide berth for a while, mainly because I could see the financial situation was not good. One competition in, and I am already £112.00 down. 86 Counties later and that works out at, well, a lot.

Yesterday, however, I spotted an opportunity to move into the black.

Debenhams in Gloucester were hosting a wedding event. They were offering the opportunity to win £250 as a spending spree.

A couple of problems that I could spot:

1. I am not planning a wedding.

2. I am single.

3. Both 1 and 2

The more astute of you will have noticed that for the bowls event, I had a partner. Well the situation has moved on. I have now moved back in with my parents in Gloucestershire. It really is true, they turn the lights off at Newbury. The countryside is so dark.

So for the chance to win £250 pounds, all I had to do was to fill in the coupon, and hand it in to a member of staff in Debenhams. Yes, I am not planning to get married, but why should single people be excluded from the competition?

And so I filled it in, in green ink.

Now the bowls event warranted a card, a greetings card. So why should the rural Gloucestershire competition be any different? I couldn’t just hand it in as they suggested to any member of staff. No, this was going to need some thought.

I took my mind back to Thoki Yen. P G Woodhouse style, I will update the newcomers on this analogy. Thoki Yen was a grand master at Origami. Origami was the way forward for my entry into this competition.

Swans.

They are romantic aren’t they?

I looked up how to make a swan in origami…

This is written so parents can read the instructions while kids fold...
but don't read aloud! Just use the written instructions to give some pointers if necessary. Pictures are sometimes enough by themselves.

Origami for Beginners: The Swan

And so I began.

I folded the paper as if a parent was reading the instructions to me. Eventually, I had a swan:

There it is.

I bought a card from my parents shop, £1.30, and I popped the swan inside with a little message:

I delivered it to Debenhams in Gloucester by hand.

Sunday 3^rd May 2009

So, about this bowls event.

It was with trepidation that I went to Southend Victoria train station at 9.00 a.m. to embark on my journey.

£39.30 for a return ticket to Great Yarmouth, not a great start.

The Ticket Seller advised me that I should have booked in advance, as it would only been about six quid. Well this was all a bit last minute. Change at Liverpool Street, Norwich, and finally I arrive at Great Yarmouth train station.

Now, Great Yarmouth has a particular place in my heart. I once broke my wrist whilst trying to ride a mini-motorbike on Big Jim’s farm. I ended up in the A & E department of Yarmouth Hospital, where they adorned my arm with a rather fetching blue plaster cast. I regaled the taxi driver with this story as we drove away from the station.

“Well we’ll be driving right past Yarmouth Hospital on the way to Potters. See there it is”

Memories, memories.

So, I arrived at Potters Leisure resort, £14.00 for the cab.

It was now around 3 p.m. 7 hours of traveling. I therefore decided that it would be better for me to stay the evening. I went to the reception to pick up the winning tickets, as agreed with Libby. I had already missed the morning session of bowls, but that could not be helped. There they were, two tickets for Mr Carpenter. I enquired if I could book a room for the evening, which seemed to throw them a bit. Yes, I did only want to stay the one night. Most people at Potters tend to stay for at least a fortnight. Anyway, it was ascertained that I could have a bungalow overlooking the sea for £70.34.

I don’t know either.

So in sum, 36p for the stamp, £39.30 for the train, £14 for the cab, and £70.34 for the bungalow, a grand total of £124.00. I looked the price of the tickets up on the internet, £6.00 each, and so I am £112.00 down.

When they gave me my key for the room, it came with complementary tickets to the bowls. Hmmm…

However:

Friday 24^th April 2009

I received a text message from Big Jim yesterday. Apparently things have gone a little awry, and he will be unable to make it to the bowls. Oh well.

So today is the day.

 

Monday 20^th April 2009

I HAVE WON THE BOWLS TICKETS!!!!

Apologies for the capitals, but I have never won anything in my life. The first competition that I have entered on my little quest, and I have won! For new comers to my blogs, I recently applied to every single job in the Guardian Newspaper dated 29/09/07 without receiving a single interview, and here I am on this one with a one hundred percent success rate. Much better.

Let me qualify this a little. I won one of the runners up prizes, which was two tickets to the opening day on Friday 24th April, and guess who is playing? None other than the Fozmeister.

I found out this momentous news when I checked our answer-phone messages. I called Potters Leisure Resorts back, and they confirmed that I had won the tickets, which were for the morning, afternoon, and evening session. They were sorry to inform me that lunch was not included, but I could buy some starting from £6.95- that seems very reasonable to me. I have to collect the tickets from reception on the day. They gave me a reference number which was 1,6**,***,*** (Last eight digits deleted for obvious security reasons-I don’t want anyone to turn up and steal my tickets). Does that mean there is going to be 1.6 billion people there?

To be honest I can’t see anyone that I know taking a well earned days holiday, at such short notice, to cart up to Norfolk to watch the opening rounds of a bowls competition, I may have to go alone, let’s see.

Hang on a second, Big Jim Lives in Norwich.

Big Jim is an old friend from college. He is called Big Jim because we lived in a house that contained two people named Jim, and Big Jim was; well, bigger than Little Jim. We were very, very clever back then. So I phoned his mobile:

Boooo

Boooo

Oh pants, that means he is abroad and will probably not be around to make it on Friday. Nevertheless he answered and was surprised to hear from me. He was in Spain on holiday. I explained that I would be in Norfolk on Friday, and obviously would have liked to have taken him to the bowls with me, but obviously if he is in Spain, I wouldn’t expect him to come all the way back.

Guess what? He was flying back in on Thursday night. He agreed that he would come, and he would pick me up at Norwich Station on Friday Morning. So Big Jim and I are off to the bowls.